258 The Field Naturalist s Quarterly Nov. 



fled, and, pale and trembling, rejoined his companions, who 

 stood awaiting his return. They had heard the rejoinder to 

 the bold defiance, and were in alarm, wondering what evil the 

 temerity of their companion might have brought upon them. 

 To the relief of the group, and especially of him who had 

 braved the shagfoal in his lair, nothing more formidable 

 than a neighbour emerged from the thicket. He had been 

 coming through it as a short cut home, and hearing the 

 challenge had responded in what he conceived to be suitable 

 accents. 



How widely distributed the shagfoal may be in other 

 parts of England I do not know ; I only know him as I have 

 found him in Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. 



Fishing Notes in South China. 



By J. C. Kershaw, F.E.S. 



Many of the native methods of fishing practised in China 

 are curious and interesting to a Westerner, some of them, 

 like many other native functions, requiring a maximum 

 quantity of noise and din, chiefly extracted from drums. 



One peculiar industry is that of moonlight fishing with 

 white-painted boards. Long narrow boats, reminding one 

 very much of a sheep-feeding trough, with the usual bamboo 

 and mat roof at the stern, the fishermen balanced by a large 

 stone in the prow, paddle out from the shore on moonlight 

 nights provided with broad white-painted boards the length 

 of the boat, secured alongside and sloping up towards the 

 gunwale but with the outer edge resting in the water. The 

 white surface attracts many fish, large and small, which 

 leap on the board or into the boat as the fisherman paddles 

 silently along. 



Of what may be termed lever-net fishing there are endless 

 modifications ingeniously fashioned to suit different circum- 

 stances. The most common type is the square net attached 

 at the corners to four bamboos, lashed together at the top, 

 and raised and lowered by a pole pivoted to an upright post 



